


This is just for you

by comicc_bookk_jawnss



Series: Damie Birthdays [1]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28774257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comicc_bookk_jawnss/pseuds/comicc_bookk_jawnss
Summary: Dani and Jamie celebrate Jamie's birthday a few months into their road trip across America.
Relationships: Dani Clayton & Jamie, Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: Damie Birthdays [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2122629
Comments: 16
Kudos: 81





	This is just for you

“Dani, it’s beautiful.”

Dani had been planning for Jamie’s birthday for a little while now. Her last one had been mentioned in passing during one of their earliest conversations at the dinner table at Bly. Owen had explained that he’d offered to make anything Jamie wanted for her dinner and been quite offended when Jamie had had the audacity to request something as pedestrian as bangers and mash. Jamie had quipped that the sausage had been a bit dry.

Everyone had laughed, but Jamie had seemed to react to her laugh, in particular. Dani had seen her smile to herself after noticing. Dani had wished her a belated happy birthday, at which point, Jamie’s cheeks had turned a tad pink, and she’d mumbled a quick thank you before asking Flora about the new book she was reading. Flora had then happily given them a very meandering but thorough summary for the next ten minutes.

Later that night, Dani had _casually_ asked Owen for the specific date and stored it in her mind, even then sensing it would be important. And she’d been mulling over how to celebrate ever since they’d hit the road a couple months ago. She’d known not to go overboard, not wanting to overwhelm her. But, as it turned out, she’d failed at that immediately.

She’d woken up early to make her breakfast, which had been a bit difficult to do in a motel. Dani had managed to convince the owner to let her use a kitchenette off the lobby that was technically supposed to be for employees only. Jamie had woken up shortly after she’d walked back to their room with the plate. Dani, sitting on the side of the bed, smiling widely, had wished her a happy birthday; and for a moment, Jamie had just stared at her before bursting into tears.

Horrified, Dani had put the plate on the floor and taken Jamie in her arms, apologizing profusely — though for what, she wasn’t quite sure. Jamie kept shaking her head, but it had taken her a few minutes to calm enough to be able to explain: she hadn’t realized that Dani knew when her birthday was.

Dani had felt her own eyes tear up. She’d kissed Jamie’s forehead, then retrieved the plate. For the next hour, she’d sat back against the headboard, feeding Jamie her breakfast, while Jamie sat curled up between her legs, laughing and talking, as tears still trickled down her face.

Figuring Jamie needed a reprieve, she’d waited until early evening to give Jamie her present. She’d been surprised when Dani had mentioned it, but fortunately, had smiled — and continued smiling, granted a bit misty-eyed, as Dani had pulled the chest out from under their bed.

The chest was made of oak: sturdy but not flashy. Dani had found a furniture store in town, and there’d been plenty of fanciful painted ones to choose from, but Dani had thought just a simple wood finish suited Jamie better. And watching Jamie run her hand over the top, her mouth hanging open slightly, she knew she’d chosen correctly. Jamie opened it and laughed.

“Could probably fit you in here… this is perfect for our clothes.”

They were already running low on room in their luggage, as they started to accumulate new outfits on the road.

“No, no, this is just for you,” Dani explained, kneeling beside her.

“Oh, I don’t mind. You have more clothes than I do, anyway. And those sweaters of yours take up a lot of room.”

Dani laughed.

“Thank you, but it’s - it’s not for clothes, Jamie.”

Jamie finally took her eyes off the chest, furrowing her brow as she turned to Dani, who took a deep breath.

“I thought - I thought this could be like your… your rucksack… but bigger.”

Jamie’s rucksack was the first thing Jamie took out of the car when they’d arrive at a new motel and the last thing she’d put back in the car when they’d check out. Something had told Dani not to touch it or ask about it. She’d figured Jamie would talk about it eventually, when she felt ready.

And she’d felt ready a couple weeks ago when they’d been getting ready for bed one night. As they’d sat side-by-side, Jamie had gone through its content, laying them out on the duvet.

There was a teddy bear with stuffing coming out along a few seams, a prize she’d won at a fair when she was 5; a well-worn paperback copy of _The Outsiders_ , her favorite book — Sodapop was her favorite character, but it was Johnny who she identified with most strongly; a matchbook she’d knicked from the Manadarin Oriental shortly after moving to London; _Parallel Lines_ by Blondie, the first record she’d ever bought; a receipt from a chip shop, her first meal after [getting out of prison](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28368561); and a receipt from the pub in Bly, her first meal with Dani after leaving the manor.

At that point, Dani, now struggling to see through blurry eyes, had stopped her so she could kiss her. And then, Jamie had shown her the last two momentos.

The first was a short story she’d written for school when she was 11. It was marked up in red, she explained, because her spelling was atrocious — that being one of the words she’d spelled wrong — and it was “pretty shite,” anyway. But she’d held onto to it and even let Dani read it while she’d washed up. Dani had cried immediately, even harder when she’d seen the note on the back from the teacher: “Keep writing, Jamie!”

Jamie had blushed but smiled shyly when she’d returned to find Dani in tears, and then she’d shown her the final item: a photograph of her and Denny sitting on the floor playing cards while baby Mikey slept in her lap.

She was seven, almost eight. Denny was nine. Neither of them were smiling, but instead squinting at the camera, apparently caught off-guard. It had been taken by Louise, a few weeks before she’d left. Her voice thick, Jamie had laughed about her wild hair, noting how “absurd” it looked atop her tiny frame. But Dani had insisted it just made her even cuter.

As Jamie repacked the rucksack, Dani had thanked her for sharing it to her. Emotionally exhausted but seemingly peaceful, Jamie had fallen asleep on her chest shorty thereafter. And it was then, stroking her hair, that Dani had decided what to get her.

“I just - I figured you might need more room now, you know?”

For a few moments, Jamie didn’t say anything, barely reacted at all; and for the second time in one day, Dani worried she’d done something wrong, even moreso when Jamie got up and started walking away. She was about to call after her, until she saw Jamie slide open the closet. And then she’d started to smile.

Jamie leaned onto her tiptoes to reach the shelf above the rod their coats were hanging on, grabbed her rucksack, then walked back over. Wordlessly, she zipped it open and carefully transferred its contents to the chest, before adding the blue-gray, duct-taped-in-a-few-places rucksack itself. And then, surveying her _new_ rucksack, she finally smiled.

After a few moments, she turned back to Dani and threw her arms around her.

“Thank you, Dani.”

Smiling wider, Dani kissed her neck.

“I’m glad you like it.”

They stayed like that for a long time — Dani, cradling her head, rubbing her back. But Jamie never cried, and Dani, of course, didn’t want her to but did admittedly find it a little curious.

It wasn’t until hours later, well after her birthday dinner and their subsequent celebration, that she woke up to find her sitting on the floor by the closet hugging her knees with one hand and running her hand along the rim of the reopened chest, bawling.

Dani swiftly got out of bed, looked around and spotted her robe hanging off a chair. She threw it on and padded over to Jamie, who she saw was wearing a T-shirt. It was then that Jamie looked up.

“Oh, sorry! I’m sorry.”

She knelt down and pulled Jamie to her, cradling Jamie’s head against her chest.

“Shh… it’s okay, it’s okay.”

She felt Jamie shake her head.

“I didn’t… mean to… ”

“Jamie, it’s okay.”

She kissed the top of her head. And for a few minutes, Jamie didn’t say anything as she continued to cry. Then, breathing haltingly, she pulled back to look at Dani.

“I don’t… I don’t know how to… thank you.”

Dani smiled but looked at her rather quizzically as she cupped her cheek.

“Honey, you already did.”

Jamie swallowed and shook her head.

“Properly, I mean… you… ” She cleared her throat and looked down. “No one’s ever - ”

“Jamie.”

Jamie looked back up.

“Use it… use the chest. That’s all the thanks I need, okay?”

After a moment, Jamie nodded, sniffling, then laughed awkwardly as she began wiping her face.

“I’m - ”

“Jay.”

Jamie smiled shyly and nodded again. Dani helped her up, after she closed the chest and the closet, and guided her back to bed, but then hesitated herself. She didn’t really want to keep wearing the robe, but she didn’t feel like rooting through drawers in the dark. But before she could decide, Jamie had crawled over to the foot of the bed.

She hopped off, opened one drawer, immediately pulled something out, closed it and walked over to Dani, holding her Blondie T-shirt. Dani gasped softly.

“Jamie… ”

“We - we can share it… I _want_ to share it.”

Dani smiled.

“You’re sure?”

Jamie nodded, smiling shyly again, and Dani leaned in for a quick kiss.

“Thank you.”

Then, they were back in bed, Jamie’s head her chest once more. For a few minutes, they lay in silence.

“You’ve set the bar pretty high for me, ya know?”

Dani stopped twirling Jamie’s hair for a moment.

“What?”

“For _your_ birthday.”

Dani smiled.

“You know when my birthday is?”

Jamie scoffed.

“’Course I do!”

“But… ”

Her birthday had never even come up in conversation, at least not that she remembered.

“Checked your passport at the airport… when you were in the bathroom… Nice photo, by the way.”

Dani felt her heart melt. Jamie had anticipated her birthday, and yet still hadn’t expected anything of Dani for her own.

“Jamie… ”

Jamie cleared her throat.

“Well, now you’ve gone and ruined my plans, anyway. Oak chest was ma first thought.”

Dani laughed.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to think of something.”

Jamie sighed dramatically.

“I guess… Night, Poppins.”

“Night, Jay.”

Dani leaned forward to kiss the top of head, then layed back. Jamie smiled to herself as she closed her eyes. She’d thought of Dani’s present months ago, before they’d even left Bly.


End file.
